There’s less ice than ever before, and it’s still disappearing.

NASA

The Arctic sea ice extent yesterday fell below its previous record low and is currently losing frozen sea at the rate of ~29,000 square miles (~75,000 square kilometers) a day. That’s equivalent to an area the size of South Carolina every 24 hours.

Here’s what happened:.

• On 26 August 2012 sea ice extent fell to 1.58 million square miles (4.10 million square kilometers).
• That’s 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) below the previous record set on 18 September 2007.
• The 2007 record low ice extent was 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers).

Note that this year’s record low was set more than three weeks earlier than the 2007 record. And summer isn’t over yet. There’s more melting to come.

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